With "humanism， generosity， and a passionate， beating heart" (The Times， London)， Janice Galloway s Clara reignites， from between the lines of history， the great love of Robert and Clara Schumann. In her lifetime， Clara was a celebrated concert pianist and composer， editor and teacher， friend of Brahms -- as well as mother of the eight Schumann children and caretaker of her husband through a series of crippling mental illnesses. In its luminous integrity the novel brings Clara Schumann to life as a woman of genius. Galloway is at once a meticulous researcher of her subjects remarkable and highly dramatic artistic careers and a virtuoso storyteller whose imagination and empathy lead her to that place off limits to history and biography -- inside the human mind. Distilling the memories， poetry， and musical notes therein， she examines the ways artists divine patterns out of life s chaos. "Passion，" writes Galloway of Clara s performance philosophy， "one might take for granted -- its control is the mechanism through which all else flows." Though music may have bent to Clara s will， love served her far more tragically. Dismissing the clichés of Great Art and rejecting the romantic conflation of Madness and Creativity， Clara boldly ventures that in a life marred by alienation and isolation， "Work alone endures."